Environment & Energy news

Fine Dust and Ozone Alerts in Less than 7 Minutes

09/11/2017SMG2189

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has established the ‘Automatic Air Pollution Alert System’ which will send alerts to citizens within 7 minutes through text messages, electronic boards and mobile phones when the fine dust and ozone level in the atmosphere is higher than the accepted standard. The program will start operation in September 2017.

Before the establishment of the new system, when an alert situation occurred, the SMG responded in the order of immediately notifying the press and registering information on the Air Quality website, sending text messages and faxes to citizens and public institutions, and posting messages on mobile Seoul, SNS and electronic boards. This took 30 minutes on average.

The SMG, by reducing the alert time from 30 to 7 minutes by implementing the simultaneous alert system, helps those who are particularly susceptible to fine dust including infants, babies, seniors and sick people as well as outdoor workers to respond to air pollution more efficiently.

The SMG will encourage fine dust susceptible groups, vulnerable groups, and patients to subscribe to the text alert service so that they can receive air pollution information quickly. The text request process will be simplified as well.

Registration for the text alert service, which used to be available after joining the Air Quality Information website and applying is now available via phone (82-2-3789-8701/120 Dasan Call Center) for the first time in the country. Now seniors who do not know how to use the Internet can apply for the service easily.